Inside Defiance: Episode 14

Go behind-the-scenes and into the mythology of "In My Secret Life."

The Earth Republic has finally rebuilt Defiance's stasis nets. Stasis nets were originally developed by the Indogenes (you can tell by the signature hexagonal patterns in the energy field). In the first episode, Mayor Nicky's Indogene assistant Ben Daris blew up the statsis nets, allowing an army of Volge to attack the town.

Berlin recognized Irisa's throwing knives as "Barth blades." Barth was the bladesmith in AngelArc who alerted Varus to Nolan's presence.

These are Shrill, just one of many alien species that were introduced to Earth during the terraforming process. The Shrill were inadvertently brought to Eareth along with the Votan fleet. Their spores are extremely resilient, and can even survive in the vacuum of space. At some point during the journey to Earth, the Arms collided with a small, seemingly harmless asteroid belt. Shrill spores launched onto the Arks' hulls and remainded there for centuries until the ship entered Earth's orbit. In the wake of Arkfall, these spores were buried deep below the surface and began to germinate.

"He tracked Buster Bullwin across the Storm Divide and presented Starren Dahrti with the head of the man who murdered his sister. He'll find our bomber." Amanda used Nolan's exact words from the first episode, when Nolan tried to convince her to allow him to investigate Luke McCawley's murder. None of those claims were true, by the way (but Nolan is an excellent tracker).

"You're an idiot," has become a term of endearment between Nolan and Irisa. It's the closest thing Irisa can manage to saying "I love you." To see how this phrase originated, and get a glimpse of the early days of Nolan and Irisa's relationship, check out the Defiance minisodes.

"[The Tommy/Berlin kiss] was the first scene with Stephanie Leonidas [Irisa]....Stephanie is by far one of the kindest, sweetest people I have worked with, and at this time I didn't know her very well, but knew how much she was loved, especially by the cast and crew....At this point, the cameras are only on Irisa, and they capturing her reaction to Tommy and I kissing.....at one point, Michael [Nankin, the director] pulls me aside and whispers a direction into my ear so no one hears except for me. He tells me to do exactly the same thing, but at the end of the scene, he wants me to turn directly to Stephanie and start yelling at her as aggressively as I could, with all the hatred I could father. He wanted her reaction to be of pure shock, and he thought this would be the best way to get it. I obviously said sure I'll do it, but I felt so horrible!.....I remember the crew sort of looking at me like 'What the hell is this new girl doing?' but Stephanie and I had a good laugh after that, and shared a big hug." - Anna Hopkins (Jessica "Berlin" Rainer).

Nolan earned the nickname "No-Man" (as in "no man left standing") due to the brutality he demonstrated during the pale wars. In 2029, Nolan led his squad into Yosemite Valley, where a group of human and Votan pacifists had established a commune. Believing they were enemy sympathizers, Nolan and his squad killed 98 humans and 112 Votants, earning Nolan another nickname - "The Butcher of Yosemite."

The Castithan saying shiro ksa yu re ya (or "seeming is being") encapsulates the vanity of their culture. Their society is governed by a strict caste system, and appearance is everything. Most Castis would rather die than be made to look like a fool, since an individual's embarassment also reflects poorly on their family and caste.

"I loved Camp Reverie! But it was August and unbearably hot. Temperature is always a concern for me and I was essentially wearing a sweat suit with not a single inch of my body exposed. I was even locked into prosthetic hands in those episodes so claustrophobia was fully kicking in, but in a way, I guess its added to the feeling of being in hell!" - Trenna Keating (Doc Yewll).

The Earth Republic and the Votanis Collective have been in a state of cold war for over a decade. Though the VC are based in Brazil, they've been expanding northward, establishing colonies through Central America and Mexico. The Earth Republic has moved large numbers of troops down to Texas. They haven't started shooting at each other, though most people believe it's only a matter of time.

"One of the aspects of Berlin's character I focused on was her military background, and how that would influence her physical character. I shifted from yoga to weight training and started running longer distances than I usually did.....One of my first days on set, we shot the scene where Nolan and I are trying to prevent a shrill bomb attack and we end up running through the town in a bit of a chase scene. It was like running an obstacle course, over and over and over again. We rose to the challenge, but I'm sure I can speak for Grant (Bowler, Nolan) as well, we were pretty sore the next day." - Anna Hopkins (Jessica "Berlin" Rainer).

"When I work with Jaime (Murray, Stahma), I am constantly absorbing what she is doing, ehr speech, her breathing, etc. It is a very mentor-mentee type relationship on set and that is why I find the scenes between Christie and Stahma work so well. Christie admires Stahma and is constantly absorbing and learning from her. I love with with Jaime...I feel very connected when filming with her." - Nicole Munoz (Christie McCawley).

The Earth Republic has the best equipped army in North America. When the Votans first came to Earth, they shared much of their technology with humans (including projectors like the ones Berlin uses). The cultural exchange came to an end when the war broke out. The Earth Republic hordes as much alien tech as they can get their hands on in anticipation of a second war.

The character ob "Bradley Weddle" was named after two writers who wrote for season one of Defiance - Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, whose other credits include Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

The battle of Bloody Kansas was the first decisive human victory of the Pale Wars. After several devastating losses, the Earth Military Coalition finally unleashed their Bioman (similar to the one seen here) troops on a Votan stronghold northeast of Topeka. The biomen made quick work of the aliens' defense, slaughtering every man, woman and child in town. Some Castithan religious elders were outraged and formed the Soldiers of the Way, a radical jihadist movement dedicated to wiping out humanity once and for all.

[When asked about working with new cast members - Berlin, Pottinger, Mercado] It feels like they have been there all along. They have just jumped in and stole our hearts." - Trenna Keating (Doc Yewll).